Student Life
by GermanyMadridista4Life
Summary: Having gone through shared trauma together, the first generation-contestants thought they would be able to survive living together. However, not being on the show anymore does not mean they stopped being drama-magnets.
1. Does She Call Him Daddy?

**(A/N So I kind of decided to completely change the story, after I got inspiration from headcanons on Tumblr about the total drama people being in college. Those headcanons were also quite realistic so I just went with it, made some changes and hope you enjoy how it came out. Also, a few people were following the first version of this story and I wanted to say sorry for not continuing it and I hope you like this version too)  
**

* * *

Though it was no secret that the first-generation Total Drama-contestants generally hated each other with a passion, going through humiliating, disgusting and life-threatening challenges together did create some kind of 'bond'.

And that's how they ended up in front of a house somewhere in Toronto, impatiently waiting for Courtney to open de door.

"How difficult can it be to put a key in a lock?" Heather complained, checking out her nails and laying her head down on Alejandro's shoulder. The two had arrived together, earning a few raised eyebrows and smirks from the others, which Heather had kindly answered with a murderous glare.

Courtney sighed, clearly annoyed. "Well, it's not like you even try to help, do you?" she scoffed, stepping away from the door, making way for Heather who rolled her eyes and still didn't make any attempt at helping her.

"Would've been a lot easier with a screwdriver" Duncan mumbled, earning himself a glare from Courtney. "Yeah because who needs an intact lock on their door anyway, right?"

"Courtney, if you just step away from the door," Bridgette said as she took her friend by the hand and guided her a few meters away from the door, "then now let me try it." Bridgette, who was actually calm as opposed to Courtney, easily got the key to turn and thus the door to open.

Bridgette turned around and looked at Courtney triumphantly. "Whatever" the other girl mumbled, picking up her suitcases and stepping into the house, for which everyone had laid in some money to pay for.

The building, an old boarding school, had 12 bedrooms (which was rather convenient given the fact that there were 24 people), 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a laundry room. There was also a small backyard. All in all, they had nothing to complain about. Except for each other.

"Sooo, are we supposed to make bedroom arrangements or something?" Katie suggested, stepping closer to Sadie rather unsubtly to show that she wanted to room with her best friend. Bridgette answered with a shrug, "yeah sure."

That was all it took for Katie and Sadie to run off squealing, in search of a room. Mumbling, the others that had already arrived followed suit. Since they were adults and not under supervision, they figured the couples could room together, resulting in Bridgette and Geoff, Heather and Alejandro and Tyler and Lindsay sharing bedrooms. Duncan and DJ were an obvious pair too.

The others arrived soon after and soon almost all rooms were complete. Noah and Cody, despite some glares from Sierra and a desperate attempt to get Cody to share a room with her, ended up rooming together, just like Harold and Ezekiel. The room next to theirs was now Justin and Trent's.

For some reason, and despite not having gotten back together, Izzy and Owen insisted they share a room too. Poor Sierra and Beth ended up next to them.

LeShawna, as everyone assumed, intended on rooming with Gwen. However, barely 5 minutes after she had started unpacking, the door was slammed open by Eva.

"Hey. Is this bed free?" she asked, although the tone made clear that it wasn't intended as a question but as a statement.

"Uhm, I actually figured I would room with Gwen" LeShawna admitted.

"She can room with that stuck-up lawyer girl then, because she is driving me absolutely insane."

"You think it's a good idea to have Gwen and Courtney share a room? Have you even seen All-Stars?" LeShawna tried to convince Eva but the latter wasn't affected. "No, I haven't but they can just deal with it. Gothie's fault she wasn't here on time."

* * *

Gwen, having arrived an hour or so later than the rest (due to public transport between Montréal and Toronto being a bitch at the moment), was met with an unlocked but closed door with behind it an empty hall.

The unlocked door indicated that there were clearly other people in the house already, so she knocked on the first door she saw, which happened to be the one to Heather and Alejandro's room. The door was opened by Heather, whose annoyed look (because of the interruption) quickly faded and was replaced by smirk when she saw it was Gwen. Alejandro appeared behind her, wearing only jeans.

"You decided to show up after all? You're the last one here so you can't really choose your roommate, you sleep in the room at the end of the hall" she informed Gwen, who just nodded, suspicious of why Heather was being so nice. Well, in a Heather-way.

"I gotta see this" Heather whispered to her boyfriend as soon as Gwen had turned around. The two of them slipped out of their room and tried to casually pretend they were heading to the living room.

Gwen knocked on the door and as soon as it was opened she understood why Heather had been so amused. Courtney was equally fazed by the fact that it was Gwen in front of her. The two hadn't talked since All-Stars and things were clearly awkward between them as they hadn't parted on good terms.

"Hey" Courtney managed to mutter, biting her lip and looking down to avoid having to look at Gwen, which would make the conversation even more awkward. Less than five seconds later she felt two arms wrap around her. "I missed you. I'm sorry" Gwen said, voice muffled because she had buried her face in Courtney's shoulder.

"No, I'm sorry" Courtney answered, hugging Gwen back. They stood there like that for a moment until they were interrupted by Heather's voice. "Well, I expected this to be a little more dramatic." And with that she took off, Alejandro following suit.

Gwen now stepped into the room an dropped her two suitcases in the corner. She let herself fall on the bed and sighed. She turned her head to Courtney, who had sat down on the other bed "Really. I'm sorry. I never should've overreacted like that."

"It's okay, I get it. I overreacted about the Duncan-thing too. Let's just forget all about it. Fresh start okay?" "Yeah."

A silence followed, though it wasn't as awkward as they'd thought it would be.

"So, did anything exciting happen before I got here?" Gwen asked, staring at the ceiling.

Courtney shook her head. "Not really. Though Izzy showed me a video of a guy whose girlfriend lives as a toddler."

Gwen turned her head left to look at Courtney again, smirking as she did so. "Does she call him daddy?"

* * *

"Are you sure this was such a good idea?" Bridgette asked. She laid next to Geoff on the beds they had pushed together to make one big bed.

"What?" her boyfriend asked, kissing her cheek affectionately.

"This. Moving in together. I mean, the show didn't bring us much good and we bring out the worst in each other. Look at Courtney, she was just preppy when we met her but then she went all psychotic. Trent's a mess and still in love with his ex, even after two years. Then Gwen, she used to be so chill back on the island and now she has become this… pile of misery and emotions. And I'm not even starting on Ezekiel."

Geoff nodded, considering it for a moment. He couldn't exactly deny what she said. "But positive have happened because of the show too! Meeting you, for example," he said, pressing a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth, "we made some awesome friends and, in the end, even Heather found a boyfriend. Heather of all people."

"Hm, good point. I'm just wondering how long it will take before people start fighting again. You can't convince me Courtney will be able to keep giving Duncan the silent treatment for the next few months or years even." "They'll go back to fighting in no time and at some point, they'll end up dating again."

Bridgette lifted her head from where it had been resting on Geoff's shoulder. "You really think so?"

"Yeah, it was kinda obvious that Duncan still has feelings for Courtney, seeing the way he acted during All-Stars and I don't think Courtney's feelings for him are completely gone either."

"I seriously doubt they'll start dating again. He really hurt her." "So did Gwen, but her and Courtney made up too right?" "True" Bridgette admitted.

"But now, enough talking about others. We finally have some privacy here. No cameras, no parents, no one around to interrupt us" Geoff said in a suggestive tone. Bridgette grinned at her boyfriend, understanding perfectly well what he had in mind."

"What do you say we try out how strong this bed is?" she giggled as Geoff started unzipping her sweater.

* * *

"Are they for real?" Duncan groaned in annoyance, hearing the sounds coming from the room next to them. They had been here for less than two hours and Bridgette and Geoff were already going at it.

"They haven't seen each other for a while, let them enjoy their time together" DJ said, as he set Bunny down on his bed and took a carrot from his backpack to feed to the animal.

Duncan snorted. "For a while? They saw each other a week ago. Before All-Stars, pasty and I hadn't seen each other for 2 months and we didn't get it on first thing on the island."

"Bridgette and Geoff have always been more… affectionate" DJ reasoned. He didn't really mind Bridgette and Geoff making out that much, as long as it made them happy. Duncan, however, was having none of it.

"Affectionate? I'd personally call it horny. Seriously, this is the kind of stuff you do when everyone's asleep." It wasn't so much that Duncan had a problem with Bridgette and Geoff doing it during daytime, if only they had been a little quieter.

"Shhh," DJ shushed him, "don't use that kind of language in front of Bunny." He then turned back to the little rabbit. "Duncan seems mean, but he is a really nice guy. He even likes bunnies."

"I do not."

"Duncan man, I have seen how nice you were to that bird on All-Stars, you're a good person."

Duncan snorted. "Sure, I was just doing that for the ratings, I'm still a total bad boy."

"You don't have to pretend around me man, we're friends" DJ said, holding up Bunny for Duncan to pet, which the punk eventually did, although reluctantly. A triumphant smile appeared on DJ's face as an annoyed look formed on Duncan's.

"Alright, alright. The bunny is sort of cute," he admitted, while trying to come up with a way to escape this conversation and further assumptions of his so-called 'kindness'.

"I'm going to see if Gwen is here yet."

* * *

"They groan even louder than Rafa Nadal!" Alejandro exclaimed in annoyance at the sounds coming from Bridgette and Geoff's room. He stopped playing with Heather's fingers which visibly annoyed her. She raised an eyebrow. "Rafa Nadal?"

"Yes, Rafa Nadal. You know who he is right?" Heather just shrugged, "sounds Spanish."

He now dropped her hand, causing her to turn to look at him, his face was a clear image of disbelief. "Seriously? He's the number one tennis player in the world! How can you not know who he is?"

Heather, not really caring, shrugged again, "is he that vamos-guy? I don't really follow sports." She had more important things on her mind after all. She had big plans for her future and getting admitted into a prestigious management program had just been the first step.

"Yes, he is the vamos-guy. I thought you'd be a little more educated on the culture of my country." Heather sighed, was he actually being serious about this? "Well, I like tapas, does that count?" she faked an innocent smile which, although Alejandro didn't fall for it, did seem to amuse him. "Only because it's you."

Heather smiled and reached over, wrapping her hands around her boyfriend's neck. "How about we offer Geoff and Bridgette some competition?"

Alejandro wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, making Heather roll her eyes. "I like the sound of that, mi amor." With those words, he captured her lips with his and slowly laid her back down on the bed.

* * *

"That reminds me, when I was young my mom used to put my hair into those little pigtails" Courtney giggled, remembering the pictures of her young self.

"I used to have pigtails too, but mine were like, up." "Up?"

Gwen grinned. "Yeah. Not even Pippi Longstocking-style up but actually up" she said, taking some hair in both hands and pulling it up to show what she meant. "And I was this really hardcore goth kid, talking about death and stuff. I even had this headless doll."

Courtney looked taken aback. "A headless doll? What age are we talking about?" "I was in daycare, so I guess I was like 3 or 4 years old." "How do you even remember that?" "I don't, my mom just never let me forget it."

The other girl shuddered. "I'm glad I wasn't in your daycare then." "That place was horrible. One time some kids took our goldfish out of the aquarium to paint him so he'd look like the Rainbow Fish, you know that book?" Courtney nodded. "Yeah. Did the fish survive?" "Of course not, poor Ricardo."

"Who'd call a fish Ricardo?" a voice interrupted them. The girls looked and saw Duncan standing in the doorway, grinning at Gwen.

It was only then that he noticed Courtney's presence.

"Hey" he said, confidently. Courtney merely scoffed and turned away so she didn't have to look at him. She was not giving up on the resumption of the silent treatment just yet. Gwen, however, gave him a 'could-have-expected-that'-look accompanied by a shrug.

"Come on, princess. It's been two years; can't we at least be civil to each other? You're even buddy-buddy with Gwen again." "Because I actually apologized. Several times" Gwen reminded him, although it wasn't something she liked looking back on. Even after the whole chart-thing Courtney pulled on her, she still felt guilty about it, which was way she apologized to Courtney for her reaction to that as soon as she had seen her.

"Exactly. And don't call me princess." "What do you prefer I call you then?"

Courtney turned around, looking him straight in the eyes. If looks could kill, Duncan would've been a dead man. "I'd prefer you don't talk to me at all." "Well, you're talking to me too." "Only to tell you off." "This turns me on, if anything." "Must you always be so inappropriate?"

"Yes, Duncan. Must you always be so inappropriate? Where did the soft, bird-loving sweetheart go?" Gwen mingled in.

"You're one to talk, New Heather." "Wow, great comeback. Do you have more?" Gwen challenged him, clearly enjoying this banter. "Lots. You'll get to hear them at some point." "Can't wait."

Courtney let out an extended sigh. "Can you just go flirt somewhere else?"

This made Gwen snort. "Do you really think I'd still flirt with this?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah, she's more into guitars nowadays."

"That doesn't even make sense, you were the one still obsessed with your ex."

"You're my ex."

"Dude, don't play dumb. The other one."

"Well, your other one is still obsessed with you."

"Leave Trent out of this."

"Look, now you're even defending him."

"What does this have to do with anything? The point was that you were being inappropriate."

"And you're being a little bitch."

"GUYS!" Courtney yelled, interrupting the other two. She wasn't sure if they were still just teasing each other or whether this was turning into an actual fight. Regardless, she was having none of it. "Can you stop this please?"

Duncan was quick to respond. "She started it!"

"STOP! I don't care who started it. Gwen and I were talking and I don't like you, so go!" she demanded, although it was clear that he wasn't going to. Not willingly at least.

Courtney got up from the bed to physically push Duncan out of the room, which wasn't that hard since he didn't try to resist. She closed the door in front of him.

"You still want me" she could hear his voice from the other side of the door. "I do not!"

Her reply was met with the sound of Duncan laughing.

Courtney let out a frustrated groan and turned her attention back to Gwen, with the intention of continuing their conversation. Gwen, however, did nothing but grin at her friend.

"What?" Courtney spat.

"You two make me nauseous."

* * *

Later that day, everyone was shaken up by a loud bang. One by one, they all rushed out of their rooms into the direction of the kitchen, where the sound had come from.

Courtney was fuming. Izzy, however, didn't seem to notice this, or completely ignored it, when she came walking out the kitchen. She seemed oblivious to the smoke and the smell of something burned.

Peeking into the kitchen, Courtney couldn't believe what she saw. "You put an egg in the microwave? An EGG? Why would you do that?" "And where did you even get that egg from?" Bridgette added.

Izzy shrugged. "I wanted to see what would happen. And I got it from the chicken outside."

Tyler stiffened. "There's a chicken outside?" The jock started shaking but was calmed down by Lindsay telling 'Taylor' that it was going to be okay.

"Courtney, calm down okay? We're not going to let Izzy back into the kitchen unsupervised" Bridgette proposed, trying to keep Courtney from lashing out at Izzy. "Who's in favor?" Apart from Izzy, Owen and Ezekiel, everyone raised their hand in agreement.

"See? Problem solved" she said, however looking at Geoff as if to indicate that this was exactly what she was talking about earlier.

"No. The problem hasn't been solved. She IS the problem" Courtney exclaimed, pointing at Izzy, who in return enthusiastically told everyone what she would be studying. "But I need the kitchen, I'm going to follow courses in culinary arts!"

"Culinary arts? You? You're going to be surrounded by knives and fire? Did they even watch the show?" LeShawna asked with a judgmental look. Izzy shrugged, not even slightly offended. "No idea."

"They should ban you already" Courtney shot back. How could anyone in their right mind even think of letting Izzy into a culinary arts course? That girl was a danger to humanity, not to mention the dangerous objects she'd have access to.

"Courtney, why don't you and I go grocery shopping? Let's make a list and then get far away from Izzy, okay?" Bridgette led Courtney out of the kitchen by her arm. "Gwen, are you coming too?" "Sure, whatever."

"Can I come too?" Owen pouted, though not much convincing was needed. "Sure, why not?"

* * *

"Did you see her face? I was convinced she'd either explode or kill Izzy right there and then" Heather laughed. She, Alejandro, Sierra and Cody were sitting on and in front of the couch in the living room. Miraculously, they hadn't gotten into an argument yet, though that was mostly thanks to the fact they were discussing Izzy's antics.

"Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on Courtney. She's been through a lot and she is clearly stressed" Alejandro reasoned. He may not always have been the nicest of them all, but they'd have to live together and fighting wasn't going to bring him anything now.

His girlfriend was clearly surprised by his sudden change of heart. "When did you become Mr. Nice Guy?"

"I didn't, but it's no use starting an argument or ridiculing anyone now, we're not exactly doing this for a million dollars." "I intend to become a millionaire one day." "Well, not through a competition then."

Sierra cooed. "Aww, we're all gonna become such good friends. My followers need to know this!" She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and started typing like a maniac, completely oblivious to Heather's mutter of "and we thought Izzy was the crazy one" and the sounds coming from the hallway of Izzy herself trying to convince Courtney to come along.

"Yeeees, I think I'm gonna see what Noah is doing" Cody mentioned, seeing his chance to escape, since Sierra was paying attention to her phone and not to him.

A few meters away from them were Beth, Lindsay, Katie and Sadie discussing Lindsay's plan to set up an Instagram account dedicated to makeup that she would try out on Katie and Sadie.

"That's like, the best idea ever" Katie exclaimed enthusiastically, followed by an "eeeeee" from her best friend.

"Aw really? Thanks guys! I had this thing in mind about starting off with Halloween looks. Would you girls be my models?" Lindsay asked, to which Katie and Sadie obviously agreed.

"Maybe you could transform Heather into the Wicked Witch of the West" Beth joked, though Lindsay seemed to seriously consider it. "Maybe I could turn myself into the Good Witch then? Because then I can use a lot of glitter." "I love glitter" Sadie squealed, to which Katie nodded heavily. "Me too."

"It's a great idea Linds," Beth encouraged her best friend, "you're gonna rock this!"

* * *

"A guy grabbed Courtney's butt so Gwen grabbed his dick!" Izzy told the others first thing after walking into the living room. She was soon followed by Gwen, who actually bother to carry in some of the groceries. "He didn't appreciate it but that was the point" she finished the redhead's story.

"How do people think that's okay?" Heather said angrily. If anyone would every try that on her she'd give them the same treatment she gave Alejandro on top of that volcano.

"I don't get it" Ezekiel admitted, looking confused. While some of the others groaned, Bridgette actually took the time to explain the concept of 'consent' to him. The home-schooled boy nodded while Bridgette told him why this was not an okay thing to do. "Okay. So why would he touch her if she doesn't like it?" he asked, which was answered by a shrug from Bridgette. "Because he's an idiot."

Courtney herself didn't even look at the people in the living room when she walked in, as she walked straight to her and Gwen's bedroom. It was clear that she was upset about what had happened. The others looked concerned, Bridgette and Duncan mostly so. However, Gwen was the only one who moved to follow her.

"I'll go check up on her."


	2. Big Dick Energy

**I realize that the different pieces in the first chapter were rather short but that was actually meant to be that way, since it was my attempt at some kind of buildup for the actual drama (emphasis on attempt). And just so you know, the characters that are the main focus now are not going to be the main focus for the whole story, I'm going to try and vary a bit in that.  
**

* * *

"How are you?" Gwen asked, pushing the door open a little. Courtney had her back turned to the door and face buried in her hands. She didn't want others to see her cry. "I'm fine."

Gwen, or anyone else had they been in her place, could see that Courtney was far from fine. She kept standing in the doorway waiting for Courtney to say anything else, which she didn't. Instead, as soon as her sobs became audible, Courtney hit herself in the face.

Seeing Courtney hit herself in the face was the point at which Gwen decided to move. She rushed over and crouched in front of Courtney and grabbed both of her arms. Courtney kept her eyes focused on the ground, causing Gwen to have to lower herself further to eventually kneel in front of her, so she could look her in the eyes. "You need to stop doing that, okay?"

Courtney shook her head and sniffled. "No, I have to. Crying is weak." "It is not. Weak is a stupid concept anyway. And sometimes, crying helps a lot. Trust me, I speak from experience." "But my parents always told me th-" "Then your parents are full of shit. No offense."

Gwen let go of Courtney's arms to grab her hands instead. "Slapping yourself in the face doesn't solve anything. It's not a healthy coping mechanism and it doesn't help you. You know, it's okay to cry if you want, there's no one here and even if there was, no one would judge you for it."

That was all it took for Courtney to break down, burying her face in her friend's shirt. Before today she never would've thought it would be Gwen, of all people, comforting her. Obviously, both girls would have preferred a scenario where this wouldn't have been necessary. Gwen awkwardly patted Courtney on the back, not sure what to do since it was usually other people comforting her and not the other way around. Eventually she let her hand rest on Courtney's back and waited for the other girl to calm down a little.

Courtney cried for a good five minutes while Gwen put a lot of effort in trying not to tear up too. It was hard for her to see her friend so vulnerable, since she was usually very hard on herself and tried her best not to show too much emotion. Gwen was convinced that it was good for Courtney to let it all out. When Courtney lifted her head up to look at Gwen her mascara was all over the place, including on Gwen's shirt, but this didn't seem to bother the goth. Courtney spoke up again, voice a little shaky from all the crying. "Why am I even upset? It's not like he tried to rape me or anything, he just touched me."

"That doesn't mean that you can't be shook up from it. What he did is still assault and that's never okay. And what he said was complete bullshit." Gwen added to a now sobbing Courtney, referring to the same guy telling Courtney that she shouldn't look so shocked. He had had the audacity to say that she should be flattered by it and that he actually expected her to like it, since she had dated a criminal after all. It had been incredibly offensive and did not even make sense. Where Gwen had previously been trying to refrain from physically hurting the guy and to refuse stooping down to his level, his words were what it took to decide to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Courtney took a few minutes to get in control of the sobbing so she could talk. "It's just, we have been here for less than a day and something like this happens. I just attract shitty stuff happening to me, I guess. We both do." "Back on the show, we were always the punching bags, I have to agree with you there. But this is just one asshole, not all people are like that."

After a few seconds of silence, someone knocked on the door. Before the girls could say anything, the person let herself in. Courtney looked relieved when it turned out to be Bridgette. Although they hadn't talked a lot since the island, she was glad to see Bridgette still worried about her.

"Hey, I just came to see how you're doing." Courtney didn't really have an answer to that. Bridgette walked over to sit next to her on the bed and rub her back while Gwen used her thumbs to wipe the tears from Courtney's face.

With the tears gone, Courtney managed to smile a little. "His face when you grabbed him though." Both girls laughed a little at that, because honestly, the guy more than deserved to get the same treatment and the look on his face had been absolutely hilarious.

"Thanks for doing that, although it was a rather unorthodox method to tell someone off."

"He deserved it. I don't think he's ever going to come near us again. And if he does, I'll just call Duncan and Eva so we can beat him up."

* * *

"Do you think princess is okay?" Duncan asked, worried about Courtney. Despite everything that happened and although he hadn't always shown it, he did care about her a lot.

"I don't know man, I didn't really see her face. But Bridge and Gwen are with her, she'll be fine." Geoff said, clapping him on the shoulder. He wasn't actually sure about that, since he didn't know Courtney that well and had no idea whether her reaction would be to be shocked or angry or something else.

Duncan didn't seem to believe it either, as he merely nodded with a grim look on his face. "Why would that guy do that though? Just grabbing someone like that." Duncan himself may not have always been a gentleman when it came to girls, but he at least knew to keep his hands to himself when the other party had no desire in being touched.

"Because he's an asshole probably." Heather muttered. She had her feet in Alejandro's lap and was casually playing with the Spaniard's hair. "That's why I always carry pepper spray around. If you're going to do something like that to me, you're going to regret it."

"Well, the guy at the supermarket did too," Owen informed the others, "and then he said something mean to Courtney and Gwen twisted her hand. I think he cried when that happened." Several of the guys flinched at the idea.

"Now that is big dick energy. Yes, pun-intended." Geoff said, causing the others to laugh. Duncan only laughed weakly. He was still worried about Courtney but he had to admit that what Gwen had done was pretty badass. He was glad they were getting on so well again, but he was also a little jealous because he would like to at least be friends with Courtney, or even just be civil to one another. He made a mental note to ask Gwen about that later.

"Where did you even get pepper spray?" Alejandro asked his girlfriend. "Bought it online. It's actually meant to be used against bears and stuff but I figured it'd work on humans too."

"Remind me to never get on your bad side." Alejandro smirked. Heather copied the expression on his face. "That would be very unwise indeed. But you're too hot to get on my bad side anyway."

The others groaned, disgusted by the lovey-dovey behavior they were used to only witnessing from Bridgette and Geoff. "My breakfast is coming back up." Noah complained.

"You're all just jealous." Heather said, chin up in the air to emphasize that she was better than them.

"Jealous of what exactly? The nauseating sight of you two kissing or the disgusting things you call each other?" Duncan mocked them, although it seemed to barely affect them. "Both." Alejandro answered, nuzzling his girlfriend's neck with his nose.

"See? This is what I mean. Nauseating! Get a room you two." Duncan complained, not in the mood for all this romantic stuff.

"But we just finished half an hour ago." Heather smirked having anticipated the groans of annoyance from the others. She leaned in to whisper in Alejandro's ear. "Too damn easy."

* * *

Izzy was seated at the desk (or well, a table that she used as a desk) in her and Owen's room. In front of her stood a camera on a pile of books she had stolen from Noah. After having checked if everything was ready, she pressed record.

"Hello creatures of the internet. It is I, E-Scope. Earlier today I moved in with the other original Total Drama people and I am gonna use this to my advantage." She reached under the table to grab the small trumpet that was lying there, ready to be used.

"This, is all I need. I'm gonna follow my fellow former contestants around all week to scare the crap out of them using this tiny trumpet." She said, waving the instrument around. "By the time this video is online, I will have a whole compilation of everyone in this house screaming, cursing and possibly physically attacking me. Stay tuned."

She reached forward the stop the camera from recording. After a moment of self-appreciation for coming up with this idea, she stood up from the chair she was sitting on and sneaked out of the room in search of her first victim.

* * *

"How do I look in this?" Justin asked as he looked at himself in the mirror. Trent, who laid on his bed, strumming his guitar, looked up. "Great. Are you going out or something?" Justin nodded, not taking his eyes off of his reflection. "Yeah. They recently opened this bar a few blocks from here and I thought I might check it out. You should come with me."

Trent gave him a 'seriously?'-look. "Why? To be your wingman and then be left alone when you find someone to hook up with? No thanks." That had happened more than enough times already and he had better things to do.

"Or, I can be your wingman for once. There's going to be lots of cute guys over there. Maybe you'll meet someone and finally get over that girl."

Trent set his guitar down on the floor next to his bed. "That girl has a name. And I've been over her for a long time." "No, you haven't. If she'd turn up in front of our door right now asking you to take her back, you would." "I'm not opposed to the idea of getting back together, that's something completely different."

Justin sighed, turning his back to the mirror for the first time in half an hour and looking at Trent. "If you liked her so much, you could at least have tried to win her back." "That's rich, coming from the guy who immediately used our breakup to his own advantage and indirectly got me voted off." Justin laughed awkwardly, "sorry."

Deciding that the V-neck shirt he was wearing wasn't good enough, Justin took it off only to throw on another V-neck, this time with a deeper cut. "You know, if you want to show off your abs, you can just go shirtless." Although Trent was obviously just joking, Justin looked like he considered it for a moment. "Dude, no." "I wasn't actually going to do it. I'd at least wait till we're there."

Trent raised an eyebrow at that. "We? Did I agree to come with you?"

"No, but I'm making you. Come on man, the last time we did something like this was over a year ago. I promise I'll be your wingman this time and if you don't find anyone, I won't take a guy home either." "You better not, we share a room now."

Justin sighed, getting impatient already. "You're trying to change the topic. Go look for something nice to wear, we're going out tonight." "It's not really my thi-" "Trent. Clothes. Now."

Knowing it was no use trying to get out of it now that Justin had his mind set on something, Trent agreed. He already knew that Justin wouldn't keep his promise and he was also sure that he was going to feel uncomfortable. Bars weren't really his thing after all, maybe with the exception of those who held open mic nights. This was going to be a long night.

* * *

Izzy tiptoed her way around the house looking for her first victim. She spotted Cody in the kitchen, putting away some of the groceries the others had bought at the supermarket earlier. When she saw him open a milk carton to drink from it, she decided that was the perfect chance to strike.

She turned her camera on and pressed the record button before quietly walking up to Cody from behind. When the boy put the carton to his mouth to drink from it, she lifted the trumpet to her mouth and blew hard.

"AAAAH!" Cody screamed, spilling the milk all over the floor and the counter. When he saw it was Izzy who scared him, which wasn't surprising really, he shook his head.

"Why?" Cody asked, attempting to look angry but failing. "Because it's fun." Izzy simply answered, subtly hiding the camera behind her back. When she heard footsteps approaching, she quickly made her way of the kitchen again, not wanting to get caught in the act by her future victims.

Speaking about victims, on to find the next one.

* * *

"Hey pasty, where are pretty boy and your admirer?" Duncan teased Gwen as soon as she walked into the living room, Bridgette and Courtney in tow. He'd only just noticed that the two boys had taken off to their room, which he couldn't blame them for, since they were all pretty bored anyway.

"Justin and Cody?"

"Justin and Elvis."

"Why do you keep saying Trent's still in love with me? It's getting old already." Gwen was getting rather annoyed by it now. It had been two years since their break-up, why couldn't Duncan just believe he had gotten over her? He had had other girlfriends after her, after all.

"Because he so is! He even has a Gwen-playlist!" Sierra popped into the conversation, excited to share some of her 'knowledge'. She looked a little too excited about it in Gwen's opinion.

"A Gwen-playlist?" Duncan asked, brow raised and with an amused grin.

"Yes. It's called 'Gwen' with a broken heart after her name. Look it up on Spotify, he didn't even make it private." Believe it or not, Sierra had actually found the playlist coincidentally while looking for playlists her friends had made, or more specifically, on a search for Cody's playlists. The playlist named 'Gwen' had caught her attention immediately, although it was only because she feared Cody had made it.

"He didn't make it private? I thought Elvis would have been smarter than that." So yes, maybe he had been a little bit obsessed with Courtney lately but at least he wasn't as sad and desperate as Gwen's other ex.

Gwen grabbed her phone from the pocket of her jeans and opened up the Spotify-app. If what Sierra said was true, she at least wanted to know what kind of music was on that list and whether they were all just sad break-up songs.

"You're actually going to look it up?" Duncan asked. Gwen shrugged, "yeah, I'm curious what he thinks about me." Duncan whispered something to Geoff that made the blonde boy laugh.

Gwen looked up from her phone. "What did you say?" "Nothing. Nothing important."

It was obvious that she didn't believe it but it was no bother starting a discussion with Duncan, she had lots of experience with that.

She scrolled through the playlist. Some titles that were on there were to be expected, but others surprised her. In a good way. She hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to click on 'follow'. She found it kind of flattering that some of the songs reminded him of her and would it really be that bad if Trent knew?

* * *

Still sitting on his bed, Trent heard his phone buzz. Expecting a text from his mom, who had been texting him non-stop since he set foot outside of his parents' house, he sighed and picked it up from the bedside table.

To his surprise, it was not a text from his mom (though there undoubtedly would come one soon) but a notification from Spotify.

"Crap!" Was all he could say, loud enough to catch Justin's attention. "What's wrong?"

His question went unanswered by Trent who just proceeded to say crap and eventually handed his phone to Justin to show him what exactly was so 'crap'.

 _ **Gwen Dvořáková**_ _is now following your playlist_ _ **Gwen**_

Justin handed the phone back to Trent who looked unsure of what to do now. "I thought you were over her? And you made a playlist with her name but you didn't bother to make it private? And what kind of surname is that?"

"I am over her, but that doesn't mean I can't still like her a little. I probably just forgot to make it private, how was I supposed to know someone would actually find it anyway? And it's Czech." Trent answered all of Justin's questions.

"Czech? Random. And when did she become so smooth?"

* * *

Noah was in his room skyping with Emma. Things hadn't exactly been the best between them, since they barely ever saw each other, but up until now they had always made it work. They spent half an hour talking about the stupid stuff Owen and Izzy had already done since they got here. Emma had yet to meet Izzy, but maybe it was a good thing that she didn't know the redhead in person.

"You've never told me what you're actually studying over there." Emma mentioned. "Something with science or physics?"

Noah shook his head. "No, journalism." Maybe it was just the quality of the connection but Noah would swear he saw Emma look like she didn't believe it.

"Journalism? You?" "Yeah, why not? I'd be able to make a good living out of it too, considering who I live with."

Emma smiled fondly at her boyfriend. "You wouldn't do that." "No, I wouldn't. Anyway, I'm also kind of interested in library science so I'll see what I'll end up doing." "That does sound more like you, but I'll support you whatever you do."

Noah was about to thank her for that but was interrupted by the loud sound of a trumpet, which caused him to scream. He angrily turned around to see Izzy standing there, with a trumpet in one hand and a camera in the other. No surprise really.

"Did you film this?" He asked in a pissed off tone. Izzy nodded and skipped out of the room. Noah turned back to his computer, only to see that Emma wasn't able to hold back from laughing.

"You saw her coming in, didn't you?" As Emma nodded, Noah turned his face away, pretending to be annoyed. "Is this funny to you?" "Kinda. You should've seen your face." She said, before bursting out in giggles. Hearing his girlfriend laugh made Noah laugh a little too, but not without whispering "I'll get you back" under his breath.

* * *

"What happened?" Trent asked as he and Justin walked into the living room and saw Sierra cradling a miserable-looking Cody's head. Lindsay and Beth were sitting next to them, looking sympathetic toward the boy.

"Didn't you hear those sounds? They scared me man." DJ said, looking quite scared indeed. "And then it happened again."

"Yeah, what was that anyway?" Justin asked, though it was clear that he wasn't going to get an answer from DJ, whose back was being rubbed soothingly by Geoff.

"Probably that lunatic redhead, since she's nowhere to be seen." Eva muttered. Izzy definitely wouldn't be able to get her or she'd regret it till the end of her days, which, if she kept doing stuff like this, wouldn't be that far into the future.

Cody nodded heavily, or well, tried to, since Sierra's grip on him was rather strong. "Um Sierra, I don't think Cody can breathe like this." Beth said, noticing how uncomfortable Cody looked. It took a minute of convincing from Beth's side to actually make Sierra loosen her grip on him, although she didn't want to fully let go.

Trent, witnessing the scene, sat down without paying attention to where. After a few moments, he noticed that he had sat down next to Gwen, which was about the worst thing he could have done, in his opinion at least.

Gwen, however, seemed amused. "Hey." She smirked. Trent smiled awkwardly, "hey".

It was silent for a few moments (or well, between them, since the room was filled by the sounds of Sierra cooing at Cody) before Gwen spoke up again. "Nice playlist."

Trent wished he could disappear right there and then. "Don't even mention it, it's embarrassing." Because really, your ex finding a playlist that you dedicated to her, with a broken heart in the title and that you still add songs to two years after your breakup? That was beyond embarrassing.

"That's embarrassing? I have a whole guilty pleasure playlist dedicated to my European guilty pleasures alone." She tried to comfort him. It was true though and said playlist was nearing a total of 80 songs by now. Not exactly something she liked to flaunt.

"Seriously?" Trent asked, now that he was pretty sure he had stopped blushing (may that be from embarrassment or the fact that, yes, he did still like her a little). Gwen nodded, facial expression showing that she wasn't very proud of it.

Again, a few moments of 'silence'.

This time it was Trent that spoke up. "So, how have you been?" He regretted as soon as he saw Gwen's smile disappear when he asked that. "Shit," she admitted, quickly adding, "but I'll survive." This was followed by a barely audible "I guess."

"Sorry." "It's okay."

They were distracted by an angry Noah walking in and demanding that someone tell him where Izzy was, which no one could tell him really since no one had seen her other than Cody when he was attacked (as Sierra put it).

"Do you have anything planned for tonight? Justin wants me to come with him to a bar and I don't feel like being abandoned after 5 minutes." "Wow, you really make it sound like you ask this voluntarily." Gwen managed to smile a little again, causing Trent to smile too.

"You make it sound like I'm only doing this to avoid going out with Justin." "And you're not?" "No. Or well, maybe a little but I like hanging out with you and we haven't talked in ages."

Gwen nodded. "Alright. What do you want to do then? Lay in the garden and look at the stars?" She said, obviously referring to the night they had really bonded for the first time. Trent shrugged. "Why not?" "Okay, go tell Justin that you have a 'date'." She joked, using air quotes on the last word.

As Trent stood up to walk over to Justin, he almost tripped over Cody, who had managed to escape from Sierra and was subtly trying to crawl away. Unsuccessfully.

"Can't go out with you tonight man, I have something else to do." Trent said, sitting down next to Justin. The other guy just raised his eyebrows, "don't you mean 'someone'? I saw you talking to her you know."

"Don't make it sound so weird. It's not a date, we're just going to look at the stars together."

"Yeah right, that doesn't sound like a date at all." Justin said, the sarcasm in his voice very obvious. Trent had to admit that that did kind of make it sound like a date.

"Okay, if I say it like that, it kind of does sound like a date, but it's not, we're just going to talk a little. We're over each other. I'm over her."

"If you say so."


	3. REDRUM

As it was the first night and no one really wanted to cook, they decided to order takeout, resulting in a mess of empty food containers and an angry Courtney who really had to try her best not to start shouting at anyone.

Earlier that evening, poor DJ had become Izzy's latest victim. The sudden and loud sound of the trumpet had caused him to scream and cling to the nearest person, which happened to be LeShawna, for the good majority of an hour. However, he was now finally starting to calm down a little.

"It was so loud and so unexpected." He whimpered as LeShawna patted his back, now knowing better than just pushing him away. "I know, DJ, I know."

DJ got so scared that Izzy almost regretted using the trumpet on him. Almost. She had made her way out again before anyone managed to catch her and she was currently making plans to scare Courtney. This was going to be a tricky one, since Courtney was very alert since DJ's almost traumatic experience, but she was mostly very angry.

Izzy had managed to find a hiding spot under Gwen's bed which, thankfully, hadn't been made very neatly so the blanket hanging half off the bed wouldn't catch Courtney's attention. This made it the perfect place for Izzy to wait before attacking. While waiting for Courtney to come in, she decided to eavesdrop on the conversations people were having on several places in the house.

This would have been a paradise for Sierra. Izzy had already heard several juicy stories that she could possibly sell the purple-haired girl in exchange for access to the kitchen. She now knew that Lindsay still thought Heather was such a meanie, that Justin thought Trent was a lovesick puppy and, most importantly, that Geoff called Brody 'babe'. Or was it just 'bro'? She hadn´t really understood, but babe would be better for gossip, she decided.

While texting Sierra this vital information, she heard the door open. She carefully peeked past the sheet and immediately realized that this was her intended victim and not the girl that had offered her the hiding spot in exchange for a blanket to borrow (Izzy had a whole collection of blankets, because they were "soft like Owen's tummy", whatever she meant by that).

Putting her mouth to the mouthpiece, she waited for Courtney to turn her back to Gwen's side of the room. After a while Courtney finally did so and bent down to pick something up from the floor; the perfect time to strike.

Courtney was clearly startled by the sound of the trumpet but within seconds this turned into anger. Pure gold for Izzy's compilation video.

"Izzy get out of there!" Courtney demanded. The room wasn't that big so it hadn't been difficult to guess where the sound had come from.

Izzy giggled. "And if I don't?"

"I will kill you!"

Izzy, climbing out from under the bed (which was rather difficult since she still had the camera in one hand and the trumpet in the other), started chanting. "REDRUM! REDRUM! REDRUM!"

She used Courtney's moment of confusion to quickly make her way out of the room, the other girl not even trying to catch up with her.

* * *

"Yeah, but like, it was so awesome bro!" Geoff laughed into his telephone. He was deeply engaged in a conversation with Brody. Bridgette liked her boyfriend's best friend a lot, but she was pretty sure they had been on the phone for at least an hour by now. Which meant an hour without having kissed each other.

"Geoff." She said for the fifth time, poking her boyfriend's side. Unsurprisingly, he didn't respond, so she poked harder and continued doing so until he gave in.

"What?" He asked. He wasn't exactly annoyed, but Brody was just in the middle of telling him this wicked thing he had done, that Geoff absolutely needed to know everything about (Brody's words).

"You do realize I'm here too right?" Bridgette asked him almost sarcastically. She wasn't jealous, but she did hope he'd put the phone down for a while.

"Yeah, of course. I was just talking to Brody." Geoff said, not noticing that his girlfriend actually wanted him to hang up, even if it was just for a few minutes.

"Yeah, I know. You've been talking to him for over an hour now."

"I can't just hang up on him. Yeah, I'm still there babe." He said as he heard Brody's asking if he could still hear him.

Bridgette's eyes widened as she looked at her boyfriend, who didn't seem to notice the look of surprisal on her face. "Did you just call him babe?" She asked incredulously, trying to hold back a chuckle.

Geoff shrugged, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Of course, he's my best bro."

"Isn't babe something you'd call your partner and not your best friend?"

Geoff shrugged. "Is it? Brody and I are chill like that. And it's just a nickname."

She shrugged off the arm that was wrapped comfortably around her shoulder. "Hm, I'm going to see how DJ is doing."

Geoff looked disappointed for a moment but was soon distracted again by Brody continuing the story he had been telling him. "That sounds wicked man, how'd you even do that?"

* * *

"Favorite band?" Trent asked, genuinely interested. Since they had gone out to look at the stars just like that night on the island, they decided they might as well play that little question game again too. After having dated for a while, there was still so much that they didn't know about each other. That's how they ended up lying on a blanket in the garden, heads next to each other, asking each other the most random of questions.

"Queen. Favorite cartoon?"

"Avatar, I guess? Since that was the only one I actually followed." Gwen nodded. She honestly missed those times when her biggest worry had been whether she'd be home on time so she wouldn't miss anything of her favorite shows.

Trent thought about the next question for a few seconds, before deciding he couldn't really come up with anything original. "Favorite ice cream flavor?" "Tiger Tail."

Trent turned his head so quickly it was a miracle he didn't pull a muscle. "For real?" "Nah, I prefer chocolate. Tiger Tail sounds more exciting than it is. Favorite food?"

"Anything Italian." Trent answered without any hesitation. He was sure his mom, who was Italian, would've scolded him had he said anything else. This had, however, also resulted in him not being able to cook anything other than Italian food.

"I can't really come up with more questions." Trent admitted. Although he had his eyes fixed at the sky again, he could see that Gwen nodded in agreement. "We were here to look at the stars anyway, right?"

* * *

"Cody, don't!" Noah said in a warning tone. Ezekiel, now that he wasn't feral anymore, could be 're-raised' well again, according to Cody. Noah agreed with him on that, as long as it concerned things such as teaching him modern values and the concept of equality. Not when it came to the idea of introducing him to Fortnite.

"But maybe he'll like it!" Cody pleaded. In vain, since it was clearly not working on Noah.

"It is not something he should like, it's Fortnite!" Noah exclaimed annoyed.

"What is Fortnite?" Ezekiel asked. He had been standing near them, able to hear their little argument, but he was still clueless about what Fortnite was.

"Nothing you are supposed to know about. It is stuff like this that gives millennials a bad name." Noah said, although it quickly became clear that Ezekiel also didn't have a clue about what exactly a millennial was.

Cody was about to explain what Fortnite was, but was interrupted by Noah almost immediately. "It's a ga-" "You'll ruin him."

At this point Harold, who was also in on the 'Introducing Zeke to Fortnite'-plan, chimed in too. "What about Five Nights at Fre-" "Definitely not that either! I don't think he would be able to survive that."

Cody thought for a moment, not sure what to do. Noah wouldn't be able to physically stop them from playing Fortnite but there was no doubt that he'd able to get others to help him. He had already found, by merely mentioning it, that Duncan and Eva hated it with a passion. Apart from him and Harold, no one really seemed to be into it. Well, except for Izzy, but she had very… special ways with gaming, so she didn't really count.

"What about Just Dance?" He eventually asked. It was the only thing he could think of that he had brought and that Noah would allow, since it didn't involve killing or jumpscares.

Noah raised a brow at him, wondering if he was actually serious. "Yeah, sure. Go wild!" He said sarcastically, assuming that Cody didn't actually own that game, let alone would have brought it with him.

He, however, regretted having said that when 15 minutes later he walked into the living room, where there was pretty much a Just Dance tournament being held. Izzy, Owen and Tyler dancing to Dragostea Din Tei was really something he did not need to see again.

"Are they for real now?" He asked no one in particular. Heather, who had refused to join the almost cheering crowd, scowled. "They said they got your permission."

"I meant it sarcastically!" Noah facepalmed. He should've known Cody would either not understand or just completely ignore his sarcasm.

"Yeah, I don't think that that works on them, they-" Heather was interrupted mid-sentence by her boyfriend holding out his hand for her to take. "Can I have this dance?"

"You want me to dance? As if I'd give these idiots here the pleasure of watching an actual skilled dancer dance!" She scoffed, turning her head away from Alejandro.

Alejandro shrugged. "Then I could ask Lindsay or Courtney, maybe one of them would want-" He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence (which had been his plan anyway) because Heather grabbed the hand he was still holding out for her and dragged him to the TV, where Izzy had gotten Bailando ready.

Before they started, Heather turned to her boyfriend to give him one last challenging look. "Bring it, Iglesias!"

* * *

At some point during the very intense Just Dance competition, LeShawna noticed that Gwen wasn't there and, since her friend kind of enjoyed seeing people she didn't like in awkward situations, she decided to go look for her.

When she got to the room Gwen shared with Courtney, she knocked and opened the door, only to find Courtney sitting on her bed in the dark.

"Are you okay, hon?" She asked. Courtney didn't answer and since it was impossible to see if she shrugged or nodded, LeShawna turned the lights on.

Courtney was sitting on her bed, blanket pulled up as high as possible without it slipping off and she just stared at the wall. If LeShawna would find out this was Izzy's doing, she would have to have a little talk with the redhead, since she'd already almost given DJ a heart attack and it was really not a good thing to have someone walking around scaring people with a trumpet.

"Did Izzy get you?" LeShawna asked. Although Courtney nodded, it was clear that this was not the reason she was sitting here alone, in the dark. Courtney was a talkative person and closing herself off like this wasn't like her at all.

"Was it the guy at the store?" Courtney nodded again and shrugged. "I'm probably just overreacting. Stuff like this happens all the time, though obviously it shouldn't."

"It's not weird that you were a little shocked by it, that guy was just an idiot." LeShawna scoffed. The guy had been lucky that she hadn't been there because she sure would've done his private regions more damage than Gwen had done.

"I know. I've been saying for years that this stuff is not okay but I've never actually tried to do anything against it."

"Then change that."

Courtney raised an eyebrow, looking unconvinced. "As if I can."

"Not altogether. But you have been on an internationally famous TV show, a lot of people will at least listen to what you have to say."

It took a few seconds for this to dawn on Courtney, but when it did she immediately threw the blanket off. "That's a great plan!" LeShawna wasn't sure what exactly the plan was but Courtney seemed to have gone from sad to enthusiastic in less than a second so she counted this as a win, even though she wasn't sure whether whatever Courtney's plan was would be the start of something great or if she had just created a monster.

Courtney had grabbed her laptop and started typing furiously, to the point where it might as well have been Sierra. However, LeShawna was pretty sure that whatever Courtney was writing wasn't an article on how incredibly soft Cody's knees were (how did Sierra even know that in the first place?).

"You okay again?" LeShawna asked. "Yes. Or at least I will be soon."

LeShawna nodded, although she still had no idea whatever it was that Courtney was doing. "Do you know where Gwen is?" She asked, remembering that that was what she initially came for.

"In the garden with Trent." Courtney answered without taking her eyes off of the screen.

"With Trent?"

"He had to escape from Justin or something."

"Sure…" LeShawna wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to imagine as 'escaping from Justin' and frankly, she didn't even want to know. And although she wondered what Gwen would be doing in the garden with Trent of all people, she decided to wait and ask her later, because she had no desire in disturbing them.

* * *

"No, put your hand a little higher." Trent said, taking Gwen's hand and putting it a little higher up the neck of his guitar. He then took her fingers to place those at the right place too.

Trent had been trying to teach Gwen the basics of playing the guitar for over half an hour now and both of them knew that it was a lost cause. Somehow, it felt quite comfortable and neither of them wanted to admit that they might as well just give up now. This is exactly what Trent had meant when he said he missed hanging out with her.

"And then like this?" Gwen asked. Honestly, she had no idea why Trent even bothered to try to teach her. She was also pretty sure he was screaming internally at the hopelessness of her attempts right now. However, it had been a long time since they'd actually talked this much and since they could actually just be around each other without it being awkward.

Trent gave her a look of faked pity. "No." He laughed, making Gwen laugh too. He was glad that she also knew that this wasn't going to work. Not that he could judge, compared to her drawing skills, his drawings looked like they had been made by a 4-year old.

Gwen was about to hand the guitar back to Trent, but he stopped her. "Let's just try one more time okay? Just one chord?" He pleaded. Gwen sighed, giving in and trying to get the guitar in the same position it was in before, though she, again, placed her hand at the wrong place.

Trent, understanding that this probably wouldn't work if she tried it on her own with him just sitting there telling her what to do, moved to sit behind her on his knees. He took the guitar and placed it in a different position and again moved her hand and fingers back to where they had been before.

"Is it possible to break a guitar pick?" Gwen asked in all seriousness. Trent shrugged, though Gwen didn't see it since he was sitting behind her. "I don't think so." "That's a relief. Now I just hope I don't break your guitar."

After several attempts and a lot of help from Trent, Gwen managed to produce a decent-sounding tune. Proud of herself, she turned around to face Trent with a look of 'did you hear that not-quite-terrible sound too?'. Her face ended up just mere centimeters from his. Without either of them having noticed it, Trent's head had almost ended up on her shoulder in the process of him showing her how to play.

Trent quickly excused himself and sat back down next to Gwen, taking the guitar from her when she handed it to him. Where the silences earlier that night had been comfortable, this was the exact opposite.

Eventually Gwen broke it by asking a question she had been meaning to ask for a long time now. "Shouldn't you be mad at me?"

Trent looked genuinely confused. What could she have possibly done to make him get mad at her? "Mad at you? Why?"

"Because I dumped you on international television without even attempting to talk about it first?" Gwen said in a way that made clear that she still felt bad about it. Talking to Trent had only made it worse, since he was being his usual nice self and she definitely didn't deserve that kindness.

"I understand why you did it." Trent said. Although it obviously hurt to be dumped like that, he knew he should've told her about his OCD earlier, it just never really played up so he hadn't deemed it necessary.

"That doesn't make it okay. I hurt you." Gwen said. Her face showed that she was genuinely sorry and that she still felt guilty about it. Although their relationship hadn't lasted very long, he knew that she had a tendency to beat herself up about things she regretted or felt bad about.

"Don't worry about it, okay?" He said, cupping her face with his right hand for a short moment before realizing that she might be uncomfortable with that and quickly pulling his hand back.

She nodded, although reluctantly and clearly not agreeing. "Can I use your phone for a moment?"

Trent decided to ignore the sudden change of subject and handed it to her. He wasn't able to see what she did with it but it became clear when he heard the familiar sound of a violin. "Is that the playlist?" Gwen shrugged in response, "I can't help that you think I'm a fairytale." Trent playfully hit her on the shoulder. "Stop embarrassing me!"

* * *

Seeing Izzy being Izzy usually made people question her sanity or wonder if she had any at all. Seeing Izzy dance like Izzy was even more worrisome and in poor DJ's case, almost traumatizing. Owen didn't seem at all worried by it however.

"You're such a great dancer." He complimented Izzy, impressed after having seen her very creative and kind of intimidating performance of Beep Beep I'm A Sheep.

"Thanks, Big O, may I say that you're not so bad yourself." The redhead answered in what was probably an attempt at a posh accent, before jumping on the big guy, who quickly made sure to catch her.

"You wanna…?" She didn't say anything more but wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. When she wiggled her eyebrows like this, it usually meant she wanted to make out, Owen remembered that very well.

"I'm not sure if that's such a good idea." The blonde answered, to which Izzy pouted. "But it's so much fun!" She pleaded, not at all caring or even noticing that half of the people in the room were staring at them.

Owen looked unsure for about half a second before sprinting to their room (of which no one really knew why they insisted on sharing it) with Izzy in his arms.

Noah sighed, rubbing his temple as he felt a headache come up. "Please never let those two have children."


	4. E-Scope Will Protect You

**I guess this kind of is the start of some actual storylines?**

* * *

"Are you kidding me?" Gwen asked when Courtney's alarm went off way too early in the morning. It was only a matter of seconds till the ringing stopped and the light was turned on, making Gwen have to squint to be able to properly see Courtney. "Do you do this every week?"

Courtney, who was changing from her pyjamas into normal clothes, didn't seem to know what the other girl meant. "What?"

"Getting up at 7 in the morning on Sunday!" "Oh, I only do that sometimes."

Hearing that they weren't the only ones already awake at this hour (there was a soft thumping sound in the hall that kept being followed by a louder thump, so she assumed DJ and Bunny were hopping around together), Gwen decided to get up too, there was no way she'd fall back asleep anyway.

Grabbing her phone from where it was lying on the floor, since she didn't have a nightstand yet and the desk was too far, she looked at her own reflection and groaned.

Less than two minutes later both girls were seated at their desks on opposite sides of the room doing their makeup. That is, until there was a loud bang on the door, causing Courtney to stab herself in the eye with her mascara wand.

"No!" She sighed deeply, already looking for some wipes to clean up the mess. Soon a sound was heard from the other side of the door.

"Sorry!" Both girls heard DJ say.

"Doesn't matter!" Courtney answered. Though had it been anyone other than DJ, they would have had to fear for their lives. Realizing she apparently hadn't brought any wipes, she turned around to ask Gwen if she had any that she could borrow. Although Gwen didn't answer, she did lean down to rummage around in her backpack, eventually finding some makeup wipes in it. She threw it backwards at Courtney without looking.

"What's wrong?" Courtney asked, finding Gwen's behaviour a little odd. She knew that the other girl didn't like other people seeing her without makeup but Courtney had seen her without any several times already, so she didn't get the problem. The answer became clear when Gwen turned around, revealing that her hand had probably slipped when DJ hit the door, because there was a long black line of what was probably eyeliner on her cheek. Courtney snorted.

"As if your makeup is so on point." Gwen shot back, referring to the mascara that was now under Courtney's eyes. Courtney turned back to her desk to check the damage and her laughter immediately stopped, "point taken."

It took a few more minutes for Courtney to finish while Gwen, who wore more makeup than her roommate who preferred a natural look, still had to start on her lipstick. Courtney, deciding that she could use some peace and quiet for this very important task she was preparing (one that had priority over last night's idea right now), went to the living room already.

To her surprise, she found Trent asleep on one of the couches, wearing the clothes from the day before and using the blanket Izzy had let him and Gwen borrow to keep himself somewhat warm. Raising a brow but not waking him, she sat down at the table, pulled out her notepad and started writing. Living with the likes of Izzy, Duncan and Eva, they were in desperate need of rules, even though it was just the second day.

Just as she had finished rule three, she heard someone enter the living room. She desperately hoped it wasn't Izzy, who was the main target audience of the much-needed list of rules.

"What's he doing here?" She heard Gwen's voice ask, obviously referring to the boy sleeping on the couch.

"How should I know, you were with him last night." Courtney responded, as she was neither very interested, nor informed about Trent's reason to sleep on the couch instead of in his own room.

"You can try waking him up with a kiss." She then suggested with a smirk, hoping it would trigger a reaction.

"Yeah no, not happening." Gwen answered, not granting Courtney the response she probably wanted. Instead, she picked up Tyler's soccer ball that was lying in the corner of the room (soccer seemed to be a sport that he wasn't absolutely terrible at, although he was far from good) and threw it at her sleeping ex.

Although the shot wasn't hard, it still woke up Trent, who looked at Courtney with a confused look on his face. She made a gesture indicating him to turn around, only to be met with a complete pokerface.

"What did you do that for?" Trent asked, rubbing his shoulder at the place the ball had hit him.

"I thought that since we did some kind of awake-a-thon yesterday, we should play dodgeball today." Gwen answered, shrugging.

"Does this mean that tomorrow I'll have to serenade you, followed by Heather reading your diary to everyone? And we were on the same team!" Trent reasoned, which Gwen had to admit were two flaws in her logic.

"Good point." The goth said, slowly turning around to see Courtney sitting a few meters away from her. The ball in her hands again, she took a moment to consider throwing it at Courtney.

"Don't even try." The brunette warned her in a very threating tone, not even looking up from the notepad.

As if it was destined to be, two former members of the opposite team walked in only seconds later. DJ was carrying Bunny and talking to the animal about the little carrots he'd be getting in a few minutes. Duncan, who had probably woken up from whatever it was that DJ had been doing since he looked very grumpy and there was no way he'd get up at 7.30 AM by himself, followed. Unfortunately, this meant he was the next victim of Tyler's soccer ball.

"Killer Bass out!" Gwen stated with a smug grin.

Duncan picked the ball up and threw it back, only for it to be caught. "I'd say you're out but you already were."

Before Duncan had a chance to respond, Courtney intervened. "Can you guys not throw balls around the living room? That nothing here is expensive doesn't mean it has to get broken."

"Someone's on her period." Duncan whispered, but Courtney still managed to hear him and she wasn't pleased. "Just stop talking now."

"Whatever." The punk said as he focused his attention on something else, or rather, someone else. "What are you doing?" He asked Trent, who was still half-lying under Izzy's blanket.

"Justin took some guy home and I did not want to be in the same room as them."

"He managed to kick you out of your room on the first night? Awesome!" Duncan laughed, amused by the situation, though he was the only one. He stopped laughing when he realized no one else was and noticed that DJ wasn't in the room with them anymore, which meant it was just him, Courtney, Gwen and Trent.

"Well, this isn't awkward at all."

Not much later, Alejandro walked in, Heather in tow and both looking rather tired and annoyed. Apparently either they or DJ had managed to wake up half of the house, since Eva, Katie and Sadie trailed in behind them.

"What are you guys yelling about at this hour? It's a Sunday!" Heather complained.

"You're one to talk! What were you guys doing last night?" Eva growled, glaring at the queen bee and her boyfriend. She had barely slept the night before because someone moaning and cursing in Spanish had kept her awake.

"What do you mean?" Heather scoffed.

"Yeah, I, like, heard a guy curse in Spanish for like, really long last night." Katie nodded heavily. "There were some very bad words too."

"Wasn't me." Alejandro said as he held is hands up in defense. He and Heather needed their sleep to stay beautiful, no way would they ruin that with nights full of passion (that was something for the evenings).

"Maybe it was that guy Justin took home last night." Heather suggested, done with the topic already. "He was tanned and I'm pretty sure he had an accent."

"An accent so heavy that it could`ve been my brother." Alejandro said.

"José?"

"No, Carlos."

"Wasn't he a professional soccer player?"

"Yeah."

"Then he's probably not gay right?" Duncan intervened.

"I didn't mean it was actually my brother and prejudiced much?"

"The point is not whether your brother likes guys, this is about how some guy kept me awake almost all night!" Eva reminded them of the original topic.

"We'll just have to wait for Justin and ask him then. Or maybe the guy's still here."

"It would be like, so cute if Justin had a boyfriend." "Totally! I love gay couples! EEEE!"

Alejandro snorted and whispered in Heather's ear. "It would be useless explaining them the concept of a one night stand, I assume?" His girlfriend only groaned in annoyance and rubbed her temple.

On the other side of the room, Courtney was still sitting at the table, working on her list of rules.

"What have you been working on the whole morning?" Trent asked her, as she finished the last sentence on the paper and finally put her pen down.

"I made a list of rules." Courtney answered, smiling proudly and stretching her fingers.

"A list of rules?" Trent asked. He had a feeling after disobeying these rules, steps would be taken.

"Don't worry about it, most of them only concern Izzy." Courtney reassured him. She then stood up to announce it to the rest, before giving them brief descriptions of what exactly these rules meant.

The first rule was that Izzy and Eva had to be kept away from each other's rooms at all times, to avoid direct confrontations.

The second rule was that no fires were allowed inside. Absolutely none. The night before, when most people had gone to bed, Izzy had gotten a hold of Duncan's lighter and had set the sink on fire with it, although no one was sure how exactly she did that. The accident had resulted in a late-night screaming match between Courtney and Duncan about responsibility and taking care of one's belongings.

The third rule obliged everyone to do their chores (the chores schedule would be posted the next day). Not doing the assigned chores would be met with a punishment. Obviously, no one in their right mind would risk finding out what these punishments were.

Rule four: Izzy, don't ever sing that awful 'baby shark'-song again. Not only is it old, it is also incredibly annoying.

The fifth rule was that no one should even try to cause unnecessary fights. ("Not even catfights?" "No Harold, we won't let two cats with boxing gloves on fight each other.") Heather had scoffed upon hearing the rule. Courtney had glared at her, trying not to break her own rule.

Finally, the sixth and last (for now) rule was that the kitchen was officially 'forbidden territory' for Izzy.

* * *

A few hours later, Sierra was in Izzy's room, sitting on the latter's bed with her laptop in her lap. "So, I googled it, apparently people do call their friends babe. Not many people, but some do." Sierra told the other girl, closing her laptop. The redhead looked disappointed, fearing that her not-so-scoopy scoop had now prevented her from being able to go on a kitchen adventure.

"Oh no, I was so sure that they had a secret thing going on." Izzy sulked.

Although the 'babe' thing wasn't a lead, it still caught Sierra's interest. "What do you mean? That Geoff and Brody might have a secret relationship?" That would make a great new post for her blog.

"Could be. They're quite close and we know what happened to Gwen and Duncan's friendship."

"It's a long shot, but a little research never hurt anyone." Sierra shrugged as she opened Google again and started typing.

"It has. In some countries people get murdered for investigating or researching stuff." Izzy warned her, although political murders were totally unrelated to researching the nature of Geoff and Brody's relationship. "I like reading about murder." She then added.

Sierra looked worried for half a second before shrugging it off and going back to her research. She didn't actually get the chance to find something, as Izzy hopped next to her onto the bed.

"How do you feel about expanding your social media stuff?" She proposed, wiggling her eyebrows for emphasis. Sierra looked both a little suspicious and interested.

"What exactly do you mean?" She asked Izzy, slowly closing her laptop and focusing her attention on the other girl.

"Well, I'm setting up a YouTube channel and I thought maybe we could work together. I could use someone who knows everything about every single person in this house." Sierra nodded thoughtfully. This did indeed sound like a good opportunity to expand her platform and her knowledge.

"Alright, that sounds good. But I'll only do it on the condition that you won't scare me with that trumpet." "Of course not, you're my partner in crime now." Izzy shrugged, holding her hand out for Sierra to shake.

* * *

Later that day, when the sun had already started to go down, the living room was filled with people who were doing basically nothing.

Trent was strumming on his guitar while Cody was telling a story about how he once broke a leg while playing a videogame. The only ones who seemed genuinely interested were Harold, Ezekiel and Izzy, who was smiling like maniac.

"That's so sad, Trent play Despacito." She cackled when Cody had finally finished the story.

Trent, getting the joke, started playing the chorus of said song. Alejandro started singing along, much to Heather's dismay. The duo was soon joined by Izzy, who did a dance that was definitely way too explosive to actually fit this song.

Gwen shook her head at the scene that was taking place in front of her, wondering how it was possible that so much energy, explosiveness and carelessness all came together in one person. She was startled by LeShawna suddenly elbowing her in the side.

"You like him, don't you?" Her friend asked.

"Who?"

"The one you're staring at."

"Izzy?" The expression of LeShawna's face was enough of an indication of her not being who she meant. "I said _him._ "

"You mean Trent? Of course I like him. I dated him remember? Why would I date someone I don't like?"

"That's something you should ask Courtney or Heather." LeShawna smirked, making Gwen laugh too, having to admit that LeShawna had a point there.

It wasn't long until Gwen's face turned serious again as she looked away from LeShawna to her hands that were lying in her lap. "Even if I did like him like that, I don't think I should try to pursue anything."

LeShawna raised a brow at her friend. "Why not?"

"Haven't you ever noticed that there is nothing more to me than relationship struggles?" Gwen asked in all seriousness.

"It's not that bad, right?" LeShawna tried to reason, although it was true that her friend didn't exactly have the best track record when it came to relationships.

"It is! I completely ruined things with Trent, what I had with Duncan was just one big mess and with Courtney nothing was ever going to happen anyway." Gwen sighed. She scoffed when LeShawna started laughing.

"Don't laugh at me, I can't help that I had a crush on her."

* * *

"You girls are perfect for this!" Lindsay squealed as she did the final touches on Sadie's makeup. The other BFFFL clapped her hands in excitement when she saw that Lindsay had done the exact same makeup on both of them.

Earlier that day, Beth had created the Instagram account for Lindsay and it didn't take long for the blonde to get started on her first 'project', as both Katie and Sadie were more than willing to be models for this.

"You look soooo pretty." Katie swooned at the sight of her best friend's makeup. "You always do, but now even more!" She tangled their fingers together like they often did when they were excited about something.

Sadie smiled happily, complimenting her best friend back. "So do you!"

"You are so good at this, Linds!" Beth said, smiling at the display of enthusiasm of the two girls. Lindsay nodded proudly. She may not have been school smart and she didn't have the common knowledge most people had, but she was an absolute pro when it came to makeup.

"I know right?" The blonde beamed. "Can we take the pictures now?"

Beth nodded and held out her hand for Lindsay's phone, since that one had a way better camera than hers. Katie and Sadie quickly stood next to each other, big and genuine smiles plastered on their faces as Beth took pictures of them from two different angles. After that she also took some pictures of them individually.

They spend a good twenty minutes discussing which pictures were the best before deciding to put up one of Katie individually, one of Sadie individually and one of them together.

While the three other girls were watching over her shoulders, Beth tagged Katie and Sadie as the models for this makeup look and added some more tags Lindsay suggested, so the post would (hopefully) get noticed.

"And they're uploaded!" Beth said with a smile as soon as the picture was done loading and was now actually visible on the new profile.

"This is so exciting!" Lindsay exclaimed, literally jumping up and down in excitement. She was soon joined by the three other girls as they let out collective "eeeeee".

* * *

Today's unfortunate victim of Izzy's trumpet was Ezekiel. Considering the amount of victims the day before, everyone had been looking out all day, knowing that she was likely to strike again.

Izzy finally got the chance to scare poor Zeke when he had to go to the toilet, since that was the only moment where he wasn't in the company of other people. She was kind enough to let him empty his bladder first because it had already happened several times in high school that she scared someone so bad they peed their pants (which was amusing but she knew some of the others would make fun of him).

She sat next to the door on the side where it opened so she could scare him as soon as he came out. "Doo bee doo bee doo bah!" She started singing softly as special live background music for the video.

When she heard the toilet flush and the tap turn on, she got into position, ready to scare the pants off Zeke. As soon as the door opened, she almost literally jumped on him, while sounding the trumpet. Ezekiel immediately jumped backwards, eyes wide.

"You scared me, eh?"

"That was what I was trying to do, so great! High five!" She held up her hand, but was met with Zeke looking rather confused.

"You've never done a high five?" She asked surprised. The boy shrugged. "We have to change that now then."

Izzy held up her hand again and explained to Zeke that he was supposed to hit hers with his. He did what she said, though rather hesitantly. "That was great! We're totally friends now." The redhead nodded enthusiastically, proud of her homeschooled friend.

Zeke shared her excitement, he never really had a friend before and although Izzy did scare him (not only just now but in general), it was good to have someone on his side. After Cody and Harold's attempt to get him to play that game, he was sure that others were also warming up to him.

Izzy, grinning devilishly, noticed that Ezekiel looked a little worried. "Don't worry Zeke, E-Scope will protect you from all the evil in this house. No one will dare to be mean to you."

Zeke nodded and swallowed nervously.

* * *

"I've noticed your flirting game is back on." Duncan announced, walking into Gwen and Courtney's bedroom that evening, when the coast was finally clear. Or, in other words, now that Courtney had gone to brush her teeth and wasn't there to stop him.

Gwen shot him a sarcastic smile to show him that she was far from amused by his comment. It was getting old now, which was quite an achievement since it had been less than 24 hours since she arrived. "If you suggest something like that one more time, I'll physically hurt you."

"I might like that." The punk answered, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, as he had done on several occasions already. Gwen, however, was having none of it. "Don't push your luck."

Duncan shrugged, walking over to his ex's bed and sitting down on it before she could protest. "Whatever, that wasn't what I came to find you for anyway." He admitted.

"Then what did you come find me for?" She asked, not in the mood for any lame attempts at flirting.

"Can we talk?"

"You want to talk?" Gwen asked almost incredulously.

"Yeah. We never really talked about what happened on the last season."

"I figured."

"I just want to know what happened."

Gwen still wasn't in the mood for this kind of conversation, but it was better to just do it now and get it over with so they could avoid any future drama. "Duncan, I know you. And I'm not blind. You still liked Courtney and you never really stopped, not even when we were together. That's why I broke up with you."

"I really liked you."

"I know. You liked me but you didn't love me. Not like you loved her. Or, still love her." Gwen said, not sure what exactly was going on in Duncan's mind. She didn't know if he still loved Courtney or that he had gotten over her by now. Because by the end of their relationship, he definitely wasn't over her.

"I'm sorry." He said sincerely. It honestly surprised Gwen a little that he had properly apologized to her before he had given Courtney a real apology.

"It's okay." She said, although they both knew it wasn't. It was messed up. They had hurt each other and themselves and they still had a lot of issues to work through. "As long as I can have my best friend back." She then added, a cheeky grin forming on her face.

"That can be arranged." He said as chill as possible, not showing that he was actually very relieved. There wasn't much time to 'chill' however, as Gwen enveloped him in a hug. Although he wasn't much of a hugger, he still hugged her back as a confirmation that things were fine between them again, or that they would at least work on it.

"How about a horror movie marathon soon?" He suggested as they let go of each other.

"The classics?"

"Hell yes!"


End file.
